Chapter 109: Lin Feng! Lin Feng!

Lin Feng had also seen the news of the men’s basketball team’s crushing defeat. He merely chuckled. After all, he had already announced his withdrawal from the national team, so it had nothing to do with him.

Before the public outrage over the men’s team had even subsided, news arrived from across the ocean.

The men’s team had finished its second exhibition game against the American All-Stars.

The result was yet another devastating defeat. This time, they lost by 61 points—four more than in the previous game. Across the two exhibition games, the men’s team had lost by a combined total of 118 points, setting a new record for the most points ever conceded in exhibition play.

American sports media also reported on the team’s two exhibition games in the United States, and some of the headlines were downright mocking.

“Fourth-Rate Team Brutalizes the Asian Number One!”

“Loses by 118 Points in Two Games! Does This Trash Team Really Deserve to Play in the Olympics?”

“Strip Asian Teams of Their Olympic Eligibility!”

Those were reports from a few small local outlets, whose over-the-top headlines were at least somewhat understandable. But even The New York Times, one of America’s four major newspapers, published a piece dripping with sarcasm.

“Asia’s Number One? No! No! It’s All Just a Joke!”

The New York Times article itself was very short. It simply stated that China’s men’s basketball team had lost two games to a makeshift American squad by a combined 118 points. Yet The New York Times wielded enormous influence, and in the blink of an eye, nearly the entire world knew that China’s men’s team had been ruthlessly humiliated by a ragtag American side.

That sent Chinese fans into another uproar.

The men’s team had disgraced itself all the way onto the pages of The New York Times. This was no longer merely a sporting matter—it had become an insult to the dignity of a major nation. For the proud national team to be beaten so badly by a patchwork squad that it had been reduced to “a pile of shit” was simply indefensible.

“Men’s team, come home already! You’ve been humiliated to this extent, and you still want to keep training abroad? What a joke!”

“Maybe they should learn from the men’s soccer team. If you don’t have the ability, then stop embarrassing yourselves internationally. Just stay home and play among yourselves.”

“The Basketball Association can go **** itself! Zhou Zhicheng can go **** himself! I suggest disbanding the men’s team on the spot!”

“Lin Feng was the smart one. He refused to play along with the Basketball Association in the first place. Haha…”

“Ah, if Lin Feng had been there, they probably wouldn’t have been humiliated all the way into The New York Times…”

…

What had originally been an ordinary loss in an exhibition game had, because of The New York Times’ report, developed into a national social issue. The men’s team had been pushed into the center of the storm.

For years, China’s three major ball sports had performed poorly on the international stage. The men’s soccer team, in particular, had long since been abandoned by the public. As for men’s basketball, it was at least the strongest team in Asia and represented the public’s final hope in the major team sports. But this crushing defeat had broken the people’s hearts.

The public cursed the team relentlessly, yet they were also deeply dissatisfied with The New York Times’ mocking report.

It was like having a child of your own. You could scold or beat your own child however you pleased, but when an outsider started pointing fingers, it became unbearable—especially when the headline in The New York Times had gone so far. As a globally circulated newspaper, it was disgracefully biased.

At the headquarters of the People’s Daily, Li Piaoshui, editor in chief of the sports section, slammed the latest issue of The New York Times onto his desk.

“These Americans have gone too far! How could a report like this appear in The New York Times? It’s practically a provocation!”

“Editor in Chief Li, the higher-ups want us to strike back. What do you think we should do? I just checked, and none of our traditional strength events have faced the United States recently,” said Zhang Chunzhi, an editor in the sports section.

Li Piaoshui frowned. He, too, was troubled by the matter. The report in The New York Times had caused such a tremendous stir that, as the country’s official media outlet, they had no choice but to respond. After all, this concerned the dignity of a major nation.

“Leaving aside our traditional strengths, is there anything we can use from other sports?” Li Piaoshui asked.

Zhang Chunzhi shrugged. “It doesn’t seem so. Even if there is, it’s probably some insignificant competition.”

“What a nuisance.” Li Piaoshui tapped his fingers against the desk, staring at the computer screen. Suddenly, he noticed a news item about Lin Feng and Qin Ruolin announcing their engagement.

“Of course! Didn’t Lin Feng defeat that American star named Smith some time ago? We can report on that!” Li Piaoshui said excitedly.

“That would indeed give us a point of counterattack. And Smith is the only NBA player on the American All-Star team that defeated our men’s team. He averaged 47 points across those two games. Without him, perhaps we wouldn’t have lost quite so badly.” Zhang Chunzhi paused before continuing, “Still, I don’t think now is the right time to report on it. Lin Feng has already announced his withdrawal from the national team, and the people at the Basketball Association seem to dislike him intensely. After he defeated Smith last time, none of the major domestic media outlets reported it because everyone was afraid of offending the Association. Besides, Lin Feng is currently serving a suspension. Reporting on him might not be appropriate.”

“There’s nothing inappropriate about it!” Li Piaoshui said sternly. “We and the Basketball Association aren’t part of the same system. We don’t need to worry about saving their face. They’re blind—they refused to let such an outstanding player as Lin Feng join the national team. Are we not even allowed to question that? Lin Feng is the perfect weapon with which to strike back at those Americans. Their number-one scorer and the NBA’s three-point champion was defeated by a player of ours who wasn’t even selected for the national team. There couldn’t be a better point of retaliation!”

“Editor in Chief Li, are you really planning to do this?”

“Exactly.” Li Piaoshui instructed him, “Start arranging an exclusive interview with Lin Feng immediately. Put it in the Sports Figures section, and in his biography, emphasize the fact that he defeated Smith. Move quickly. I want the article published tomorrow!”

“All right. I’ll contact Lin Feng at once,” Zhang Chunzhi replied before leaving the editor-in-chief’s office.

…

At the Basketball Association’s office building, Zhu Deli, director of the Basketball Management Association, sat with a face dark as water. Several sports newspapers from that day lay on his desk, along with The New York Times from the United States.

Because of the men’s team’s “disaster,” the Basketball Association was under tremendous pressure. First, the leadership above them was extremely dissatisfied with the team’s performance in the exhibition games. Second, public opinion at home had turned sharply against the Association. And just ten minutes earlier, the Association’s official website had been hacked by an unknown attacker. When the site was opened, all that remained was a message in eight large characters:

“The Basketball Association Can Go **** Itself! Lin Feng Is Mighty!!!”

“This is outrageous! These mobs are completely lawless! They actually dared to hack our official website. Investigate this! Once you find the culprit, make sure he spends the rest of his life behind bars!” Zhu Deli raged.

“Director Zhu, the cyber police are already investigating,” said an officer named Zhao Jian cautiously.

Zhu Deli grunted and said furiously, “I’d say this is eighty percent likely to be connected to that brat Lin Feng! ******, who knows what kind of drug that mob has been fed by Lin Feng? They’re all sticking up for him! Withdrawing from the national team was his own decision. What, did I force him to quit?!”

“Lin Feng! Lin Feng!” Zhu Deli muttered angrily, repeating the name several times. Then he demanded, “Right—go check immediately whether Lin Feng has paid his fine. And find out whether there’s any problem with his eligibility as a professional basketball player.”

…